The human side of Farming (The Farm - Richard Benson)

Member Name: fizzywizzy

Product:	The Farm - Richard Benson
Date:	23/10/06 (172 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Beautifully written, insight from farming community

Disadvantages: Fails to answer some fundamental questions

Where it came from I really don’t know, but I do remember hearing, as a child, that one would “never meet a poor farmer”. So, when in the nineteen eighties I heard that the suicide rate among farmers was fast increasing I couldn’t understand what farmers had to be so down about. Of course, now older and wiser, I understand better what has happened to British farmers in the last twenty years or so.

In “The Farm” Richard Benson tells the story of his family and how they have suffered like many farming families. Richard decided to go to university and study English rather than joining his father on the farm (he never really took to any aspect of farming) but his younger brother Guy was always destined to continue the family tradition. Much of the book centres on the relationship between Richard and Guy; Guy explains to Richard why farming is in the state it is and tells Richard the local gossip – farm workers who have killed themselves, how hard it is to get a girlfriend when you have to stay back and look after sick sheep and what it’s like to dig a pit for 300 tonnes of potatoes that the potato merchant no longer wants. The story starts as Richard gets learns that his parents are having to sell the family farm to satisfy the bank.

“The Farm” is part social commentary, part family biography but the two work well together and complement each other. The biography aspect is important in explaining why the changes to agriculture and commerce have hit farmers so badly. There is a particularly telling chapter where Richard describes his father’s schooling and shows how his father was destined to farm, without anyone ever questioning this. Richard also mentions stories from his own life, removed from the countryside and thinks about how his background has shaped his views and his priorities.

Richard Benson makes the perfect narrator for this story; he is able to use his close contacts to give a real “insider’s” view but he also asks his questions from the point of view of the reader who may not be so informed. In essence, he asks the questions readers want to know and asks them of people with the answers.

“The Farm” is a well-considered and structured book; Richard Benson doesn’t attribute blame for the decline of agriculture in Britain, but gives a more balanced account of how it has affected farmers in terms of much more than just money. He looks at the problems young people have finding affordable housing; he considers the role the supermarkets have played in changing the buying habits of the public and he investigates some of the ideas farmers have come up with to replace lost incomes.

Far from being a tirade against the injustice of what has happened to British agriculture, “The Farm” is a charming view of a happy childhood and a close family. Benson’s account is balanced and focused and the nostalgic episodes always relate back to the central point of the book.

The writing is easy and relaxed and the political always make way for the social aspects. As an insight into rural life this is as invaluable as any commissioned report or historic document. In fact, students of sociology or agriculture would do well to look at it when considering the impact on farmers and rural communities of modern methods and consumerism.

The only fault I can find is that the author doesn't really put forward much hope for the future; neither does he come up with any real solutions. He touches briefly on farmers running bed and breakfast accommodation or going into specialist crops but he fails to tackle the bigger picture.

Richard Benson conveys nostalgia without being over sentimental and explains without preaching. I thoroughly recommend “The Farm” to anyone who enjoys a good story well told. Richard Benson may not have been a born farmer but he has done the farming community a great service by informing the wide public about the things going on the in the countryside. For this he should be commended.

Available through Amazon from only 1Pence, new copies from £7.19
Published by Penguin, 240 pages.

Summary: An insight into agricultural change in Britiain